Pat Brown

The huts seem good for bites for sure but the bass don't seem to like when the beavers themselves are around and active because they're big and noisy. Bass are often swimming amidst ducks I have noticed at ponds I fish. Probably a food thing. I would imagine that in general bass avoid big things in the water with them that are bigger than them BUT use structure and cover even if it's cohabited by larger creatures.

I definitely like the profile of a small swim jig with a small Willow blade attached to the hook and I'm definitely going to give it a try this winter!

@Rodney Smith we are here for you every step of the way and if you can't even stand up to fish you can talk as much as your energy will allow with all of us about fishing to stay mentally positive and looking forward to WHEN you get you strength back. Hang in there - you got this. Bass fishing is beautiful because there's so many ways to enjoy it! I recommend getting into some in depth bass fishing podcasts - I work at home at a desk and podcasts help the tedious and monotonous parts go by. Big bass podcast and bass after dark are very fun and will give you lots of distractions and ideas for when you're ready to go bass fishing again! Fishing has probably saved many of the lives here more times than we lead on publicly - collectively - it's a healing and therapeutic place for the mind and soul and heart. It can help save you - I believe fully!

Love grey ghost for the Snag Proof Bobby's Perfect and the Bone Scum Frog trophy is hard to beat for frog colors. Very different actions and profiles and both get smashed in the right conditions but any water clarity or time of day - these colors work.

Best thing about having co anglers - figuring out the bite quicker - that and spending quality time with the ones we care most about. I got nothing - I feel for you and hope you can find some folks who share your passion to be out on the water with and I simultaneously hope that my son always has time for a trip with Dad but know that it may not always be the case forever. Best we can do is be grateful for the time we have.

So what you're saying is buy more salt and vinegar lays potato chips before boat trips! 😏😏😏😏

Definitely white 99% of the time. Pretty hard to beat color for spinner baits and chatter baits and crank baits and jigs also. I also like transparent or semi transparent topwaters as well! They do a great job resembling baitfish. I typically use spike it markers if I want a little orange on the throat or something like that for when it's sunfish time, etc!

Just adding some spice to the discussion by pointing out that I have *heard* you can go smaller on the front hook and bigger on the back hook and get some pretty unique action out of a lipless 😏 @A-Jay thanks for sharing your split ring preferences - I'm gonna order some to try on some older lipless baits that need new hardware this winter!

I mean this is the real answer but we gotta talk about something around here and the bait manufacturers need sales 😂😂😂😂 I am trying to impart this exact foundational wisdom in my son at this point in time. Fish the conditions regardless of what bass should be doing.

Pretty much now through March is when Pat gets very excited about fishing for bass. I love warm month bass fishing also - topwater morning noon and night is hard to argue with - but something about that thump in cold water gets the hair on my arms to stand up real tall.

@Swamp Girl - your 170 acre pond is about the size of the smaller of my two lil local big lakes! I had my suspicions it was a pond in disguise....I just didn't want to hurt it's feelings by saying so! 🥹😂

Jerkin and fluking and frogging my way to September success! Been a fun past couple days and I'm hoping this warm spell has em chewing on the big little lakes this weekend! Found a new lil retention pond next to my son's soccer field and found out the bigger girls in the lil 1 acre mud puddle definitely like frogs 😃😃😃🐸🐸🐸

Absolutely - my list wasn't exhaustive! Can't believe I left out type of cover I'm targeting but I'm still on my first cup of coffee! 🥹😂

These are the only baits that have better than a snowballs chance in hell at getting bit around here. I find that when fish learn lures - YOU start to learn conditions. The first thing I am FORCED to do when I arrive at a pond is make the determination what lure is best suited to the water clarity/amount of wind/depth/forage/speed I need to work the bait. If I was asking myself 'what lure do I want to fish today?' I'd never catch anything. I think fishing pressure merely expedites the process by which we are forced to adapt as anglers to conditions because every lure is ideal for certain conditions, even the Whopper Plopper! I think when fish haven't learned a lure yet, they'll hit a noisy big bait that doesn't look like their food on a calm day in clear water, but only to a point. I think if we learn where and when certain lures shine, regardless of pressure - we'll never have a day where the bait is making it harder to catch the fish. The added bonus of doing things this way is you get good at identifying a 'whopper plopper day' and you can get justifiably excited when you see a good opportunity to throw one! What's interesting is I typically go the opposite route when I'm ready to really learn a lure! I might throw it every day in all conditions for months at a time. I want to learn EVERY nook and cranny the bait can shine in and the only way to do that is commit to it.

I'm fairly certain the ONLY retrieve that gets me consistently bit and catches bass on flashy swimmers is letting the bait fall to the bottom and then pointing my rod tip at the bait and quickly turning my reel 1/4-1/2 turns and then immediately stopping (almost like chopping a glide bait but with longer pauses and more erratic). I find that a steady retrieve or keeping the bait high in the water column are way way less productive.

Anything with shad or shiner in the name.

One of the reasons I snap a photo of every fish I catch regardless of if I'm going to share it or not is because I get a real picture of where I caught it and a timestamp and I can go back and look at the moon phase and the time of year and the conditions and the place on the lake and I can get a composite for when they're biting for that time of year. Added bonus - I can share them on the internet lol

Very blessed and grateful to be in a location that I can get to multiple bodies of water that have big bass in 5-10 minutes. Makes popping over for a cast or two much easier - that and the excellent climate and year round good bass fishing conditions (for the most part).

I came very very close this year! I'd say I've probably missed 2-3 days on the calendar this year.

Been a little while since I updated the folks here - but it's been real fun this month! Been eating frogs and buzzbaits/buzzing plastics and lipless crankbaits and Jerkbaits (soft and hard) and swimming jigs. 😎😎😎 Already lost two big fish on jerk and lipless and seen some huge ones bail on my spinnerbait right at the bank which is a good sign 😂 - big fish are showing you interest in fast moving reaction baits again! 😎🤙🏼

I've gut hooked fish on just about everything! Only stuff I haven't had them try to swallow completely yet are baits that I don't fish a ton. I've had them completely swallow deep cranks/mid cranks/square bills/Jerkbaits/spooks/poppers/lipless/chatterbait/frog/swimjig/swimbait/buzzbait/BuzzToad etc - all of these setting the hook immediately as I feel the bite. Again - it's a rare occurrence with most baits most of the time. In general - the fish around here are spitting your bait out before you can react! 😂 I figure when it DOES happen it's gotta be a deal where you're perfectly appealing to a specific fish or there's a LOT of competition around OR you're waiting too long to set the hook (only you can know for sure if that's why it's happening 🤷🏼‍♂️).

Well @gimruis - the sample size I get fishing 365 days a year roughly is probably pretty different than most folks. I don't fish a lot of 'slow baits' in general at any point during the year. If I do - I'm fishing them fast 😂

I usually gut hook maybe 1-3 fish a year. Seems like sometimes, your presentation is so good and the competition is so stiff that they can't get that thing down their gullet fast enough. It has happened with lots of lure categories, so I believe in many ways it's just the kind of mood and appetite of the individual fish sometimes. My favorite way to say thanks for the bite and fight when that happens is a filet knife, hot grease and some panko.

I didn't say high pressure or bluebird I just said sunny 😏😎 I fish for largemouth in NC - don't know about River smallmouth but essentially - topwater is just another way to catch fish and it efficiently targets the fish that are high in the water column or buried in very very shallow cover or feeding on vast flat shallow areas (IMHO). Rainy cold days usually make a Florida strain bass go deeper. Rainy warm days - they will definitely eat a topwater depending on the rain. Cloudy days are great for topwater if there's a gentle breeze and it's warmer. Sunny days almost always seem to produce a good topwater bite 3 times a day. High pressure bluebird can be great if you target shade and heavy cover if you're fishing largemouth. If the weather is warmer when the sun comes out - topwater is go. It the weather is colder when the sun comes out - probably not gonna be a great topwater bite.

Sunny days are - for me - much better for topwater even in the dead of Summer. Fish suspend and sit high in the water column on sunny days. On cloudy days I have done well but it's generally in the spring when a front is significantly warmer than the surface temps. I agree if your water is extremely clear - clouds are better for most reaction type baits. My largest frog fish have all come in July on very bright sunny days with gentle breeze in open water. Sometimes shade. Sometimes no shade.